Lucy

This enchantingly nutso crossbreeding of La Femme Nikita, D.O.A. and Altered States is the most tangible proof that director Luc Besson gives a rat's ass since the 1990s. Scarlett Johansson, adding another brilliant movement to her recent suite of performances that explore female identity and alienation (Her, Under the Skin), plays the title role, a student in Taiwan forced to be a mule for a crime syndicate's new smart drug. When the surgically implanted package ruptures in her stomach, Lucy's brain begins to unlock previously untapped potential, causing her to rapidly evolve beyond pain, pity, and the laws of time and space. The heavily advertised central concept that most humans use only 10 percent of their brain is completely wrong, of course, but Lucy has a lot of self-aware fun with its pseudoscience, culminating in one of the most peculiar endings of the year.